is one of the

Ōsumi Islands The is an archipelago in the Nansei Islands, and are the northernmost group of the Satsunan Islands, which is in turn part of the Ryukyu Archipelago. The chain extends from the southern tip of Kyushu to Yakushima. Administratively, the group belo ...

belonging to

Kagoshima Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu and the Ryukyu Islands. Kagoshima Prefecture has a population of 1,599,779 (1 January 2020) and has a geographic area of 9,187 km2 (3,547 sq mi). Kagoshima Prefecture borders Kumamoto P ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. The island, 444.99 km² in area, is the second largest of the Ōsumi Islands, and has a population of 33,000 people. Access to the island is by ferry, or by air to

New Tanegashima Airport , also known as Tanegashima Airport,
from

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

, Nishinoomote, and the two

towns A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

, Nakatane and Minamitane. The towns belong to Kumage District.

Geography

Tanegashima is the easternmost and the second largest (after Yakushima) of the Ōsumi Islands. It is located approximately south of the southern tip of

Ōsumi Peninsula 261x261px, Satellite image of Ōsumi Peninsula The projects south from the Japanese island of Kyūshū and includes the southernmost point on the island, Cape Sata. Its east coast lies on the Pacific Ocean, while to the west it faces the Satsum ...

in southern Kyushu, or south of

Kagoshima , abbreviated to , is the capital city of Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. Located at the southwestern tip of the island of Kyushu, Kagoshima is the largest city in the prefecture by some margin. It has been nicknamed the "Naples of the Eastern wor ...

. The Vincennes Strait (Yakushima Kaikyō) separates it from

Yakushima , native_name_link = , image_caption = Landsat image of Yakushima , image_size = , nickname = , location = East China Sea , coordinates = , map = Japan#Japan Kagoshima Prefecture , map_relief ...

. The island is of volcanic origin; however, unlike neighboring Yakushima, it presents a flat appearance, with its highest elevation at only above sea level. The island has a length of and a width ranging from to . The climate is subtropical. The island, along with neighbouring Yakushima, has been recognised as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

because they support populations of

Japanese wood pigeon The Japanese wood pigeon (''Columba janthina'') is a species of columbid bird. It is found in East Asia along shorelines of the Pacific's Korea Strait, Philippine Sea and East China Sea. They are believed to be the largest representative of t ...

s, Ryukyu green pigeons and

Ryukyu robin The Ryukyu robin (''Larvivora komadori'') is a bird endemic to the Ryūkyū Islands, of Japan. The Okinawa robin (''Larvivora namiyei'') previously was considered a subspecies. The specific name ''komadori'' is, somewhat confusingly, the comm ...

s. File:犬城IMGP1389.JPG, In the vicinity of Inu Castle Coast, Daikoya District File:Nakatane_town.jpg, Town area of Nakatane (中種子町), Kagoshima, Japan File:馬立IMGP1382.JPG, Weathered rocks near Mt. Iwasaki File:千座の岩屋.jpg, Chikura Caverns File:Kadokuramisaki.jpg, Cape Kadokura File:Osumi Islands Map Japan.png, Ōsumi islands map

History

Tanegashima has a long history of

Kofun are megalithic tombs or tumuli in Northeast Asia. ''Kofun'' were mainly constructed in the Japanese archipelago between the middle of the 3rd century to the early 7th century CE.岡田裕之「前方後円墳」『日本古代史大辞典』� ...

. Other burials on Tanegashima, namely the Yokomine and Hirota sites, attest to a uniquely well-developed

Yayoi period The started at the beginning of the Neolithic in Japan, continued through the Bronze Age, and towards its end crossed into the Iron Age. Since the 1980s, scholars have argued that a period previously classified as a transition from the Jōmon p ...

culture at the end of the 4th century AD. The artifacts include

magatama are curved, comma-shaped beads that appeared in prehistoric Japan from the Final Jōmon period through the Kofun period, approximately 1000 BCE to the 6th century CE. The beads, also described as "jewels", were made of primitive stone and eart ...

, an engraved pendant, and emblems with apparent writing. During the

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from CE 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the cap ...

, the embryo state of Japan began to make contact with Tanegashima. According to the '' Nihonshoki'', the imperial court hosted a banquet for the islanders of Tanegashima in 677. In 679, the court sent a mission to the island who returned in 681. Other missions to the island mentioned in the book were in 683 and 695. According to the ''

Shoku Nihongi The is an imperially-commissioned Japanese history text. Completed in 797, it is the second of the ''Six National Histories'', coming directly after the '' Nihon Shoki'' and followed by ''Nihon Kōki''. Fujiwara no Tsugutada and Sugano no Mamichi ...

'', people from Tane, Yaku, Amami and Dokan (possibly

Tokunoshima , also known in English as is an island in the Amami archipelago of the southern Satsunan Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. The island, in area, has a population of approximately 27,000. The island is divided into three administrative ...

) came to the imperial court to pay tribute in 699. These activities resulted in the establishment of

Tane Province was an old province of Japan in the area of Kagoshima Prefecture, roughly corresponding to Kumage Subprefecture. History Kofun burial mounds on Tanegashima and two very old Shinto shrines on Yakushima suggest that these islands were the south ...

on the island in 702. Tane Province lasted until 824 and was merged into

Ōsumi Province was an old province of Japan in the area that is today the eastern part of Kagoshima Prefecture. It was sometimes called . Ōsumi bordered on Hyūga and Satsuma Provinces. Osumi's ancient capital was near modern Kokubu. During the Sengoku a ...

. Sometime around 1140, the whole island of Tanegashima became part of the

Shimazu Estate The was a ''shōen'' (estate or manor) in southern Kyushu of Japan, covering large portions of Satsuma, Ōsumi and Hyūga Provinces. It was the largest ''shōen'' of medieval Japan. The Shimazu clan took its name from this estate as the clan succe ...

, the largest medieval ''

shōen A was a field or manor in Japan. The Japanese term comes from the Tang dynasty Chinese term "莊園" (Mandarin: ''zhuāngyuán'', Cantonese: ''zong1 jyun4''). Shōen, from about the 8th to the late 15th century, describes any of the private, ...

'' of Japan. In the early

Kamakura period The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the Genpei War, which saw the struggle bet ...

, the positions of the land steward of the Shimazu Estate and the military governor of Ōsumi Province were given to the

Shimazu clan The were the ''daimyō'' of the Satsuma han, which spread over Satsuma, Ōsumi and Hyūga provinces in Japan. The Shimazu were identified as one of the '' tozama'' or outsider ''daimyō'' familiesAppert, Georges ''et al.'' (1888). in contrast ...

. However, the clan lost these positions to the

Hōjō clan The was a Japanese samurai family who controlled the hereditary title of ''shikken'' (regent) of the Kamakura shogunate between 1203 and 1333. Despite the title, in practice the family wielded actual political power in Japan during this period ...

, the de facto ruler of the shogunate. The Hōjō clan sent the Higo clan as deputy governors. A branch line of the Higo clan made itself autonomous on Tanegashima after the Hōjō clan was annihilated and began to claim the clan name of Tanegashima. The Tanegashima clan ruled the island until the

Meiji restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

. The Tanegashima clan enjoyed a high degree of autonomy until Shimazu unified southern Kyūshū in the late 16th century, and after that, served as a top-ranking retainer to the

Satsuma domain The , briefly known as the , was a domain (''han'') of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1602 to 1871. The Satsuma Domain was based at Kagoshima Castle in Satsuma Province, the core of the modern city of Kagoshima, ...

. Following the

, the island has been administered as part of Kagoshima Prefecture.

Introduction of firearms into Japan

Tanegashima is traditionally known as the site of the introduction of European firearms to Japan in 1543. Until modern times,

firearm A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions). The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes ...

s were colloquially known in Japan as "

Tanegashima is one of the Ōsumi Islands belonging to Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. The island, 444.99 km2 in area, is the second largest of the Ōsumi Islands, and has a population of 33,000 people. Access to the island is by ferry, or by air to New ...

", due to the belief that they were introduced by the

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

on board the first Portuguese ship. In his memoirs published in 1614, Portuguese adventurer turned author,

Fernão Mendes Pinto Fernão Mendes Pinto (; c.1509 – 8 July 1583) was a Portuguese explorer and writer. His voyages are recorded in ''Pilgrimage'' ( pt, Peregrinação) (1614), his autobiographical memoir. The historical accuracy of the work is debatable due to ...

placed himself in the first landing party, although this claim has since been roundly discredited and in fact contradicts his claims to have been in

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

at the time. The two Portuguese traders,

António Mota António da Mota was a Portuguese trader and explorer, who in 1543 became one of the first Europeans to set foot in Japan. Voyage While traveling to Ningbo with a Chinese junk in 1543 (some sources say 1542), Mota and the rest of the crew were ...

and Francisco Zeimoto, should actually be credited as the first Europeans to introduce firearms. However, Mendes Pinto does appear to have visited Tanegashima soon thereafter. The Europeans had arrived to trade, not only guns, but also

soap Soap is a salt of a fatty acid used in a variety of cleansing and lubricating products. In a domestic setting, soaps are surfactants usually used for washing, bathing, and other types of housekeeping. In industrial settings, soaps are use ...

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

and other goods unknown in

medieval Japan The first human inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago have been traced to prehistoric times around 30,000 BC. The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by the Yayoi period in the first millennium BC when new inventi ...

, for Japanese goods. During the

Muromachi period The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...

, Tanegashima functioned as a relay station for one of the main routes of Chinese trade that connected

Sakai is a city located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It has been one of the largest and most important seaports of Japan since the medieval era. Sakai is known for its keyhole-shaped burial mounds, or kofun, which date from the fifth century and incl ...

Ningbo Ningbo (; Ningbonese: ''gnin² poq⁷'' , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly romanized as Ningpo, is a major sub-provincial city in northeast Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises 6 urban districts, 2 sate ...

. The Tanegashima clan cooperated with the

Hosokawa clan The is a Japanese Samurai kin group or clan. Ancestors # Emperor Jimmu # Emperor Suizei # Emperor Annei # Emperor Itoku # Emperor Kōshō # Emperor Kōan # Emperor Kōrei # Emperor Kōgen # Emperor Kaika # Emperor Sujin # Emperor Suinin # Emper ...

, one of two powers who controlled Chinese trade. The clan also maintained a firm connection with the

Honnō-ji is a temple of the Nichiren branch of Buddhism located in Kyoto, Japan. Honnō-ji incident Honnō-ji is most famous for the Honnō-ji incident – the assassination of Oda Nobunaga – that occurred there on 21 June 1582. Nobunaga lodged at ...

Temple of

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

. These account for the rapid spread of firearms from Tanegashima to central Japan. File:200 escudos 1543-1993 Tanegashima.png,

Portuguese escudo The Portuguese escudo was the currency of Portugal from May 22nd 1911 until the introduction of the euro on January 1st 2002. The escudo was subdivided into 100 . The word derives from the scutum shield. Amounts in escudos were written as w ...

commemorating the Portuguese arrival at Tanegashima File:Hokusai 1817 First Guns in Japan.jpg, First Westerners in Japan in 1542

Knife industry

Edge tools (particularly knives and scissors) made in Tanegashima are famous traditional handicrafts in Japan. Craftsmen in Tanegashima have kept alive traditional techniques for forging and sharpening iron tools. Tanegashima is also famous as the center of iron sand production. The technique has been around since about 1185 when the

Taira clan The Taira was one of the four most important clans that dominated Japanese politics during the Heian, Kamakura and Muromachi Periods of Japanese history – the others being the Fujiwara, the Tachibana, and the Minamoto. The clan is divided ...

were exiled here from Kyoto by

Minamoto no Yoritomo was the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate of Japan, ruling from 1192 until 1199.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Minamoto no Yoriie" in . He was the husband of Hōjō Masako who acted as regent (''shikken'') after his ...

, taking with them craftsmen and chefs from Kyoto. The people of the island speak with a Kyoto accent even now, rather than a

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...

accent, despite its proximity to Kyūshū. These craftsmen were the original users of the distinct techniques used for forging and sharpening. The technique is unique in the world, and produces such tools as "Tanegashima Hōchō" (Tanegashima knives), used by chefs, and "Tane-basami" (Tanegashima scissors), preferred by many for the art of

Bonsai Bonsai ( ja, 盆栽, , tray planting, ) is the Japanese art of growing and training miniature trees in pots, developed from the traditional Chinese art form of ''penjing''. Unlike ''penjing'', which utilizes traditional techniques to produce ...

. Nevertheless the local population has fallen from over fifty thousand in 1970 to just twenty-eight thousand today, in spite of tourism and space industries, putting traditional crafts at risk. File:Nishinoomote06122301.jpg, Nishinoomote City on Tanegashima File:Tanegashima_Godochosya.jpg, Tanegashima government building File:2012年12月共同フェリーから見た池田港.jpg, Nishinoomote Minato Ward from "New Satsuma" (mid December 2012)

Tanegashima Space Center

The

Tanegashima Space Center The (TNSC) is the largest rocket-launch complex in Japan with a total area of about 9.7 square kilometers. It is located on the southeast coast of Tanegashima, an island approximately south of Kyushu. It was established in 1969 when the ...

is Japan's largest space development center. It is run by

JAXA The is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into orb ...

, the

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency The is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into orb ...

and is located at the southeastern end of Tanegashima. It was established in 1969 when the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) was formed. Activities include assembly, testing, launching and tracking satellites, as well as rocket engine firing tests. Activity includes orbital launches of the

H-IIA H-IIA (H-2A) is an active expendable launch system operated by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. These liquid fuel rockets have been used to launch satellites into geostationary orbit; lunar or ...

rockets from the

Yoshinobu Launch Complex Yoshinobu Launch Complex (LC-Y) is a rocket launch site at the Tanegashima Space Center on Tanegashima. The site and its collection of facilities were originally built for the H-II launch vehicle and later used for H-IIA and H-IIB launches. ...

. The Space Science and Technology Museum is near the TSC. It offers an intricate view of rocket history and technology in Japan. Though most of the displays are in Japanese, there are English tour pamphlets available. File:Global_Precipitation_Measurement_(GPM)_Mission_(12812960063).jpg, Full view of the Yoshinobu Launch Complex during roll out of the H-IIA rocket in February 2014 File:Osaki_Range.jpg, Overlooking the Osaki Range, surrounded by green mountains and the sea of coral reefs. File:宇宙科学技術館.jpg, Space Science and Technology Museum File:H2A11001.jpg, The

F11 launch vehicle lifting off from Tanegashima Space Center File:Global_Precipitation_Measurement_(GPM)_Mission_(12858254354).jpg, A

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is a Japanese multinational engineering, electrical equipment and electronics corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. MHI is one of the core companies of the Mitsubishi Group and its automobile division is the predecessor of Mitsubishi Mo ...

(MHI)

rocket at TSC

Climate

Tanegashima has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

''Cfa'') with hot, humid summers and mild winters. Precipitation is high throughout the year, but is highest in the months of May, June and September.

Sporting events

The Tanegashima "Rocket Marathon" takes place in March each year.JAX
March 2005 News
/ref>

Notable people

Miyu Uehara , better known as , was a Japanese gravure idol (glamour model) and TV personality who gained popularity as a "poverty idol". She was represented by Platinum Production. Biography Life Uehara was born on the island of Tanegashima in Kagoshima Pr ...

– gravure idol and TV personality *

Kōbō Kenichi Kōbō Kenichi (born as Kenichi Mineyama; August 18, 1973 – July 2, 2021) was a Japanese sumo wrestler. His highest rank was ''maegashira'' 9. Career Kōbō made his professional debut in March 1989 at the age of 15. He worked his way quickly ...

– sumo wrestler *

Wakashimazu Mutsuo (born 12 January 1957 as Mutsuo Hidaka) is a Japanese former sumo wrestler from Nakatane, Kagoshima, Japan. His highest rank was '' ōzeki''. He won two top division ''yūshō'' or tournament championships. He retired in 1987 and founded Matsug ...

– sumo wrestler

References

Sources

* Lidon, Olof. ''Tanegashima: The Arrival of Europe in Japan'', NIAS Press (2002)

External links

* * {{Authority control Ōsumi Islands Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture Important Bird Areas of the Nansei Islands